Thus, with a Kiss
by Beth - Geek Chick
Summary: "No kiss is more honest than the one given and received before certain death, when all hope is gone and time is brief." Collaboration challenge with Trish47! First posted on her account, now cross-posted onto mine, as well. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

A/N A few years ago, Trish47 offered up a challenge to co-write a story and posted this first chapter. I picked up the gauntlet, and we have Thus, With a Kiss. It's on her account, but I'd wanted to cross-post it to mine to make my collection complete. She gave the okay, so here it is.

It's a 6-chapter story. Trish47 wrote the odd-numbered chapters, and I wrote the even-numbered chapters. Enjoy!

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She pulls him into a furnace room on the basement level of the research facility, swinging the door shut as soon as he's inside. Their pursuers won't be able to hear the heavy metal door slam; painfully piercing alarms drone out all other noise, though once they are cloistered inside of the furnace room, the alarms are slightly more muted.

This is it. The end.

One quick survey of the closet-sized room tells her there is no hope for escape. No windows, no air ducts large enough to shimmy through. The only door leads back to the hallway where she knows their enemies are searching. It's only a matter of minutes before they're found, before they will feel the bite of the bullets.

They are both taking in hard, shallow breaths, trying to replenish the oxygen lost during their sprint. The adrenaline pumping through her body makes her focus on the one surety of their situation: there is no time. They can't wait for the extraction team that is on its way. This will come down to a fight for survival. Given that they have no weapons and their pursuers have semi-automatics, the chances for success are nil.

But only she is fully aware of how dire the situation really is. That is why, in a barely audible question, he asks, "What now?"

She shakes her head because she doesn't have an answer, doesn't have the words or the strength to tell him that there is nothing to be done. After two years of traversing the world, completing dangerous missions, it's all come down to a few final moments in a stuffy furnace room with her best and closest friend, a man who has guided her through so many other challenges, both professional and personal.

If it were only her, she could accept the imminent demise that's coming. She can accept death for herself, but she can't accept death for him. Not him.

She tries to come up with a plan, scrambles to figure out some scenario where he gets out of this alive even if she doesn't.

With no other options, she steps forward and places her hands firmly on either side of his face, angling it down slightly to her own. The touch is calm and deliberate even though her heart beats furiously in her chest with the fear of what's to come. Her nervous energy and unexpected touch seem to spur something inside of him, and even without eye contact, it is enough to communicate the hopelessness of their situation without saying a single word. He knows. He just knows.

His hands come to rest on either side of her face as well, the tips of his fingers burrowing into the edges of her hairline to draw her closer.

The world implodes as their lips crash together.

But this is not a kiss. It is not simply an expression of affection or passion or love. It is not a farewell. It is not an unspoken confession. It is all these and more.

Every moment they've ever spent together and every second they may never share combine in this one act. All the words they've ever said—all the ones they haven't—come spewing forth without sound. They do not need to utter the words "I love you" to feel it, to understand it, to believe that it is true. Three words can't compare with the language they are speaking with their bodies, with their mouths.

No kiss is more honest than the one given and received before certain death, when all hope is gone and time is brief. This kiss—full of hot, desperate energy—is a transference of souls.

And it is still not enough. Having their lips touch, having their tongues stroke against one another is not sufficient. Their hands roam, grip hair and arms, hips and backs with that same desperation. They need to be closer, to become one in their final embrace.

She slips the cuff over his wrist and around a metal pipe on the wall during the climax of their kiss. It locks in place with a resounding click that she swears they both hear over the drone of the alarms, even though it isn't possible.

She pulls away from him suddenly, almost as harshly as they came together. He yanks on the metal ring violently, rattling both the handcuff and her resolve to go through with her plan.

"Why?" he asks.

It is his bewildered, enraged tone that gives her the strength to continue. She has an answer for this question.

"Because they didn't see you," she says. It's the one comfort she has left. "Don't do anything stupid."

Her parting words are laced with tears, but she fights to hold them back because there isn't much time now, and she needs her mind unclouded. The handcuffs won't hold him very long, though that isn't her intent. They just need to restrain him long enough for her to draw attention away from the furnace room, away from his position. If she can distract the enemy soldiers until the extraction team arrives, he will have a better chance at getting out.

"Dammit, you can't leave me here!" he roars.

She picks up a loose metal pipe about the size of a crowbar, hefting it in her right hand to get a feel for the makeshift weapon. She pokes him in the chest with it. "Keep quiet. Don't make me knock you out."

"You're walking into a death trap!" he exclaims, still straining against the handcuffs as she turns away.

She can't bear to look over her shoulder at him, to see his face contorted with anger and betrayal. Or worse, with tears reflected back at her in his eyes.

With her hand on the hallway door handle, she says in a soft but firm voice: "Don't come after me."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Two: Beth Geek Chick

**Here's chapter two by ****Beth-Geek Chick****. Enjoy!**

Auggie jerks at the handcuffs as the door slides shut with Annie on the wrong side. He wants to shout, to scream for her to come back, to let him protect her. Or, hell, just let them hide, together. Wait for backup.

But he can't scream; the sound dies in his throat as his mind tells him it will only alert their pursuers to their location. Though the klaxon alarms, loud as they are, might muffle his screams, he has no idea where their pursuers are. God, he can't lose her now. The world can't be cruel enough to give her to him and then rip her away.

He's already been beaten down once in his life. He is owed one, damn it, one small break in his life! He yanks once more at the handcuff, almost feeling the bones in his wrist break from the effort. The stab of pain brings him back to the present, and he stumbles back against the wall, forcing himself to breathe and clear his head.

He is a soldier, a CIA operative, trained to get through these situations. Even down one sense, he's been trained to operate without it. SERE training made sure of that. They'd rendered them blind or deaf or surrounded by noxious gases and taught them to fight, to get out. Anyone who couldn't was washed back to the next class.

At the time, he and the other guys had scoffed, thinking the instructors' well-crafted drills had nothing to do with real life. Little did he know at the time that that very scenario would come to life.

Annie told him to stay put, to not go looking for her, but does she really think he will do that? No, he thinks, shaking his head. She knows him. She knows all she's doing is throwing off their pursuers, gaining them time to escape. She is smart, he'll give her that. Split up, draw the fire away to one side while the other slips away. Then meet up later.

God, he hopes that is her plan. If anything, that's what he will go on. So, with as deep a breath as he can muster, given the overheated atmosphere, he takes stock of his situation.

He begins with the handcuffs. They are loose enough on his wrist to allow movement, but not loose enough to slip his hand through. Next he concentrates on the pipe Annie attached him to. He runs his hands along its length. It comes out of the wall at his waist and reaches up through the ceiling. A connection point in between, right at head level, is his only hope. First, he needs to figure out what the pipe holds. It won't help to break the pipe only to wind up burned and scorched with hot water.

The temperature of the outside of the pipe is warm, not hot. Given how he is in the basement of the facility and in a small, confined area, he prays that the pipe holds steam from the furnace. Hot steam, yes, but unless he gets hit in the face with it, he should be okay.

He pulls on it with both hands, and it moves a little. Brute strength might break the pipe in a couple of hours, but time is not something Auggie has. Before she left, he heard Annie pick up a length of pipe off the floor. He hopes it isn't the only one. Swiftly, he feels around on the ground with his free hand as much as he can reach, then with his feet. He's almost given up when he hears a clang. He moves his foot and hears it again.

Success! He allows himself a second to pat himself on the back, then moves on, maneuvering his body to roll the piece of metal nearer to him. He tries not to exert too much of his strength, using small movements and shallow breaths. After a full minute, his fingers finally touch on the metal rod. It is a good three-feet long and solid metal. Perfect.

Knowing he doesn't have another minute to lose, he feels the wall around the pipe, ascertaining the perfect point to apply pressure. The pipe disappears completely into the wall and ceiling, leaving him with the connection in the middle as the only potential breaking point.

He places the bar behind the pipe, leveraging one end against the wall. With the other, he pulls and pulls, and then turns and pushes. If the connection was lower, he'd be able to use his center of gravity more, or the strength in his legs. As it is, though, he can only rely on his arm and upper body strength.

The skin on his palms is screaming, rubbing raw as he grips the metal rod tighter. He concentrates on nothing but moving the pipe. The main goal – getting back to Annie – is firm in his sights. The feel of her under his hands, his mouth, his body just a handful of minutes ago spurs him on as the terrifying thought of never having that again flashes through his mind.

It is enough. With one final pull, hands clenched, feet braced, lungs screaming for air, the metal connector releases the pipe. A squeal and hissing tells Auggie the pipe carries exhaust from the furnace. He feels the air begin to heat with the escaping steam, and he stumbles back, jerking his arm and the handcuffs over the now exposed pipe.

He nearly feels like dropping to his knees and giving himself time to recover from the exertion, but he knows he can't. He has to get out, get out of the building, and find Annie.

Find Annie. That thought itself is enough to bring him back to his feet. He holds tight to the metal pipe, transferring it to the hand that had been handcuffed. The other is nearly rubbed raw, and it feels wet with his blood.

He reaches for the door handle, hoping against hope that Annie hasn't locked it behind her. He isn't sure he has the strength to break through another obstacle. His fingers close around the handle, his bloodied palm making the knob slick.

He takes a deep breath and raises the metal pipe in a defensive stature, and gives himself a count of three before he opens the door.

One. Two. He's nearly gotten to three when the handle turns under his still fingers and is wrenched from his grasp. A screech of metal sounds amidst the klaxon alarms as the door swings open.

**Please review.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Three: Trish47

He grips the length of the pipe tightly, making the palm of his left hand sting. Auggie grits his teeth against the pain and raises the pipe above his head, ready to deliver a crushing blow to whoever is on the other side of the furnace room door. It can't be Annie—not enough time has passed for her to have disabled their enemies and come back for him. There's a slim chance that it's a member of his extraction team, but there won't be time to identify the intruder as friend or foe. Whoever is opening the door is undoubtedly more heavily armed. One second of indecision could be fatal.

Auggie stands to the side of the door, back pressed flat against the wall, feet shoulder width apart, and waits as the door swings inward with a groan. The sharp clip of heavy boots, maybe military grade, on the concrete floor give him the only confirmation he can take: the intruder is definitely not Annie.

If he misses, there will be no second chances. Then again, even if he can take out the first person, there are probably more and he won't have the luxury of surprise. But he pictures Annie and remembers his goal to find her, to get her out of the facility, and launches into action. Putting as much force behind the blow as his fatigued muscles will allow, he grunts loudly as his arms come down in a powerful strike.

Several things happen at once: a familiar voice shouts for him to stop, boots scramble to retreat, and the metal pipe connects with something at shoulder level that may, in fact, be a shoulder. The force of the contact reverberates up his arms, and Auggie drops the pipe to hang limply at his side.

"Wilcox?" he asks loudly over the still blaring klaxon alarms.

"Sonofa—" Jai growls.

Auggie hopes that Jai's tactical gear prevented any lasting damage from his hit. Somewhere in the recesses of his mind, he feels guilty for striking Jai and sympathizes with the pain he must be feeling, but there isn't time to apologize for his defensive actions. There are more important matters at hand.

"Where's Annie?" he asks.

"We're still searching," Jai responds. "C'mon, we're getting you out of here."

The standard operating procedure is to evacuate as quickly and quietly as possible when a mission has been compromised. The only thing that matters is getting out alive without being captured or identified. Auggie knows what the rulebook says, he knows that Jai and his team are here to get him out and another team is searching for Annie. But he's not entrusting her life to anyone else, comrades or not.

"I'm not leaving without her."

"We have protocol," Jai tells him, attempting to shut him down, to keep him from protesting or doing something rash.

Auggie will not leave Annie behind to be captured or killed. "Screw protocol."

He narrows his eyes and locks his jaw to show how serious he is. It may not be possible for him to stare Jai down, but he's found other nonverbal ways to get what he wants from people.

As he waits for the decision—whether Jai will help him or if he'll be searching for Annie alone—the radio at Jai's hip crackles with sound. They can barely make out what's being said over the wail of the alarms. But even though they don't hear the whole message, one word stands out: gunfire.

His stomach drops and he leans back against the wall of the furnace room for support.

It has to be Annie.

_Please_, he begs silently, _please, God no_.

Jai lifts the radio to his lips and says, "Repeat."

There's a short pause, then the voice cracks over the short-wave radio again. "Gunfire in sector four. Shots fired in sector four."

The confirmation makes him sick. He shouldn't have let her go off without him, shouldn't have let her sacrifice herself to save him. In their line of work, Murphy's Law always applies. What will he do if the worst possible scenario becomes reality? What will he do if she's hurt or worse?

Auggie stops himself and takes a breath. It's only gunfire. There are no reports of casualties. Not yet.

Jai must see the anguished expression that he doesn't attempt to mask, because the extraction team leader touches his shoulder and says, "We check this out, then _get_ out, no matter what we find. You got that, Anderson?"

Auggie nods but doesn't vocalize his affirmation. He's not going to make a promise he doesn't intend to keep. Then he takes out his laser cane—the one he hadn't had time to remove or use when he was on the run with Annie.

Auggie follows Jai at a brisk trot, keeping one hand on the hallway wall to guide him. At least three other extraction team members form a barrier at his back. Jai leads the team, stopping the group at every intersecting hallway to make sure the coast is clear.

"Did Walker get the bio-serum?" Jai questions as they make their way toward sector four.

"I don't know."

"What happened?"

"I don't know!" he repeats, frustrated with the distracting interrogation. "She was in the lab, and then all hell broke loose. A few minutes after the alarms went off, she was dragging me down the hallway."

"But you don't know if she got the bio-serum?" Jai pushes.

"No!" Auggie snaps, then says a little more calmly, "No, there wasn't time to ask."

Their pace slows as they reach sector four. Auggie doesn't know what part of the facility they are in; he can't picture the layout of the building in his mind because the only thoughts he has are of Annie and if she's all right.

"Any sign of Officer Walker?" Jai asks.

"Negative, sir." The answer comes from the same voice from the earlier radio report. "But, there's something you should see."

They move forward and Jai touches Auggie's elbow to bring him to a stop.

"What is it?" Auggie asks after the moment of silence has extended too long for his liking.

"A pipe," Jai says softly.

"Annie's weapon. . ." Auggie mumbles, closing his eyes. Then he asks, "Are there any bodies? Did she get any of the bastards?"

"No bodies," Jai says, "but. . ."

"But what?"

"But there's blood."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Four: Beth Geek Chick

Annie runs down the hallway as fast as her legs can take her. She needs to draw their pursuers away from Auggie. Pulling up a layout of the building in her head, she takes the first right she comes to.

The pipe in her hand is a joke of a weapon against the guns she'd glimpsed the guards carrying. She'd counted four of them, but that was only on the floor of the lab where she'd sneaked in to. Auggie had helped her break the codes to get into the highly secure lab. His skill and expertise had gotten them this far. She wonders where they went wrong. Did they take too long? This mission was timed down to the second, each task meticulously planned to be in and out in fifteen minutes.

She pats the inner pocket of her jacket, making sure the vial of serum hasn't been displaced or broken. Above all else, she knows it musn't get lost. Though small, it carries the lives of hundreds of people in its small glass enclosure. That may be the main and most vital end-all of this mission, but her personal wish for the end accounts for her and Auggie getting out alive.

She didn't want to handcuff him, not really, but halfway through that life-altering, life-affirming, and deeply erotic and emotional kiss, she realized she had to keep him safe - keep whatever they were experiencing right then, right now, safe.

She runs along the length of the hallway as fast as her booted feet can take her, arm cocked at the ready with the pipe. It's not much of a weapon, she knows, but it's better than nothing. A winding metal staircase appears to her left, and she trots up it, wanting to draw her pursuers toward her and away from the basement.

A few more minutes, and the extraction teams should be mobilized. They'll find Auggie, they'll get him to safety. She just has to waylay the guards until then, draw them off course.

As her feet hit the top rung, she hears them behind her, shouting as she comes into their sights. Annie increases her speed, wanting to keep herself in view of them, but far enough away that they can't get a clear shot. Down another hallway, a turn to the left, another to her right. Another staircase, and she pauses for a second, angling her head to make sure the booted feet are keeping up. They are, and she takes another turn, heading to what she remembers as sector four.

It's already been a few minutes, so she ducks into a room to catch her breath. The extraction teams should be mobilizing now, their blown check-in time giving them the go-ahead to infiltrate and retrieve.

She checks the vial once again to make sure it's safe. As her fingers close around it where it rests in her inner pocket, she flinches. A woman's scream pierces through the klaxon alarms, right outside the door Annie ducked into. Her hand reaches for the door to investigate when gunfire erupts. Instinctively, she jumps back from the door, flattening herself against the wall, metal pipe at the ready should her pursuers find her hiding place.

Heavy footfalls follow the gunfire, and Annie stands at the ready. She can barely make out the words of the guards.

"Good shot. Search her for the serum."

"What do you mean, it's not on her? I saw her take it."

"What about that guy she was with?"

"What guy?"

"There were two of them, a blonde and a dark-haired guy running away."

"He must still be here. No, leave her. She's dead weight."

Annie's thoughts are in turmoil. Another woman mistakenly shot, left for dead, the guards going back for Auggie. She squeezes her eyes shut, forcing back the tears. How did they see him? She never would have left him had she known that. Now they are going after him. Praying that the extraction team finds him before the guards do, she eases back to the door, listening intently for any kind of sound.

But for the alarms, the hallway has fallen silent, so she opens the door an inch. The sight in front of her turns her stomach, though she's seen blood and the aftermath of a gunfight before. This time, though, a civilian was caught in the crossfire.

She walks slowly up to the woman, noting her long blonde hair and black knee-length coat. It vaguely resembles Annie's attire of a black jacket and pants. Enough for the guards to mistakenly shoot the wrong woman.

She shakes her head at the senseless waste and goes to creep back inside her hiding place to wait for the team when the woman's arm reaches out and grabs her leg. The movement startles Annie, and her metal pipe drops from her fingers.

"Please help me." The woman's voice is nearly a strangle as she chokes on her own blood, but her eyes shine bright and desperate. "Please."

Annie quickly looks up and down the hallway. Against all protocol and training, she reaches down and takes the woman under her arms. With a grunt of exertion, she pulls her back to the door where she'd hidden a few moments before.

Once the door swings shut again, Annie lays the woman on the floor beside her. Her first thought is to render aid, but as she opens the woman's coat to ascertain her injuries, she bites back a gasp. The semi-automatic guns have done their job; several blossoms of red sprout through the woman's shirt.

"I'm sorry," Annie whispers, taking the woman's hand.

She must understand. A small nod and something of a smile traces her features. Her breathing stutters a bit, and she coughs, pinpricks of blood appearing on her lips. Annie can do nothing but watch.

She opens her mouth to ask the woman her name when feet sound from beyond the door. Looking around for her weapon, she realizes that she dropped it outside. Cursing her luck, she grabs the woman under her arms and pulls her across the floor, tucking them both behind a desk.

A few more minutes, she thinks. She'll give her teams a few more minutes to infiltrate, then she'll plan her own escape.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Five: Trish47

The woman beside her coughs violently. Annie wishes that there was something she could do to ease her pain during her last moments. Glancing at her face again, Annie can see that she's younger than herself, maybe fresh out of college. There is a fear in her eyes at knowing the end is imminent, but her mouth is set in a line of acceptance. She holds her composure well, almost too well.

For the first time since dragging her into the office, Annie notices the bulge at the young woman's waist. It's not a soft bulge like when a person carries a few extra pounds around the midsection, but a hard bulge like when someone tries to conceal a gun.

Annie flips back the jacket flap again, lifts up the young woman's shirt, and finds the Smith & Wesson pistol tucked into the lip of her pants. Would a normal civilian pack this much heat? Probably not.

_Who is she_? Annie wonders. Checking for a pulse, she amends her question to: _who was she_?

The only answer Annie can come up with is that the young woman was another agent, infiltrating the same research facility at the same time as the DPD team. She must have been after the bio-serum too, but Annie had gotten there first. It frightens her to think how easily their situations could have been reversed, how she could have been shot in place of the younger no-name agent. Only a few precious minutes and a lucky break kept Annie from the same fate. And Auggie.

The thought of her companion wrenches her away from pondering what agency the young woman worked for and whether or not she was after the same bio-serum. She takes the gun from the fallen agent and checks the magazine to find it's only missing one round. The weight of the pistol feels much more assuring than the hollow metal pipe she dropped outside of the office. Now she's confident that she will make it out of the facility; she just hopes that the extraction team has gotten to Auggie in time.

Just as she's considering going back to the furnace room to double-check that he got out, heavy footfalls and loud voices make her pause on the other side of the office door. With the klaxon alarms still droning on, the sounds come through the door jumbled and incomprehensible. She can only tell that the tones of the speakers aren't happy ones.

Feeling too exposed, Annie goes back to the desk and crouches behind it, giving her some cover should the voices decide to investigate the room and open fire. As she prays that it doesn't come down to a lopsided firefight, gunfire suddenly erupts on the other side of the door, making her jump. The shots aren't being fired in her direction though, which can only mean that there are two groups in the hallway: the facility guards and her extraction team.

"Auggie!" she exclaims under her breath.

If he's caught in a shooting match, he'll be practically helpless. He doesn't have a gun or a vest to protect him, nor the ability to see and react to his enemies' assault. He'll be a sitting duck whose wings have been clipped.

After everything she's done to save the mission, to save him, Annie is not going to let it end like this. She can't lose him now. She can't lose him after that kiss—the one that she had initiated and been completely swept away by.

At the time, it was her way of saying goodbye, of telling him how much she cared for him—enough that she'd sacrifice herself to ensure his extraction. But she hadn't expected to feel the same desperate longing coming from his lips. The way he'd kissed her back, so thoroughly, with such demand and intensity, showed Annie that her feelings for him aren't one-sided.

Taking hold of the pistol, she practically runs to the door, ready to risk it all for the chance to experience those feelings again, to save the man who caused the stirrings inside her chest, among other parts of her body.

As she reaches for the door, it suddenly opens. Her trigger finger tightens from the shock, but not enough to make the gun go off. Good thing, too, seeing as it's Auggie who's being pushed through the doorway, practically into her arms, by Jai.

"Keep down!" Jai shouts at both of them, then disappears, moving back into the action.

Auggie's hands grip the sides of her arms almost painfully. "Annie?" he asks.

"Aug—"

He cuts her off. "Are you hurt? There was blood in the hallway."

"It wasn't mine," she assures him quickly. "I'm fine, Auggie."

Instead of easing his hold, he gives her a few jarring shakes that would have caused her to lose her balance if he wasn't holding her up.

"_What were you thinking_?" he growls. "How could you leave me behind like that?"

Annie is taken back by his gruff attitude and even more upset that he's questioning her motives.

"I was trying to save you!" she shouts back, her hands forming into fists at her sides. "The extraction team was supposed to find you and take you out of here. It's protocol!"

"You thought I'd leave you behind because a book says to?"

"You should have!" she yells. "Now I have to come up with a plan to save both our sorry hides."

Annie breaks away from him and moves to the large window on the east wall. They're about three stories up—too high to freefall, but maybe if there's some sort of fire escape or service ladder. . .

"You're not going to say anything about that kiss?" Auggie asks, clearly still angry.

"I didn't think it was the best time to bring it up," she says shortly, glancing out the window.

"How can you brush it off?" he asks.

Another volley of gunfire goes off. It sounds like the fight is now directly outside of the office door.

"Auggie, there's no time to explain." She's only just started to decipher the feelings she has for him herself.

Two figures rush through the open door. Annie raises her gun, then lowers it once she sees that it's Jai and Mark. They close the door behind them.

"We're outnumbered and out-armed," Jai huffs. "Tell me there's another way out of this room."

Annie turns back to the window. "There may be one, but you aren't going to like it."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Six: Beth Geek Chick

Loud, angry shouts echo from the hall, and Jai and Mark join Annie at the window, where they all look down. They're on the third floor, and there are no fire escapes. Annie slides the window open and points down and to her left.

Mark lets out an epithet. "I guess it's the only way. The concrete ledge here should let us get to the drain pipe. I hope it's secure."

He holsters his weapon and is beginning to climb out when Annie stops him. "Wait."

"For what?"

Annie looks over to Jai, then to Auggie, silently pleading with her eyes. Jai picks up on her meaning, then holsters his own weapon and stalks over to the tech operative. Without preamble, he bends at the waist and lifts Auggie, fireman-style, across his shoulder.

The sudden movement startles Auggie, and he begins to protest. "No freakin' way, Jai!"

Annie quickly moves over to him, rounding Jai to come to Auggie's face that's now on level with hers. She wants to tell him everything's going to be fine and press reassuring kisses all over his face, but instead claps both of her hands onto his cheeks. "Auggie, be quiet. We have to climb down. It's the only way."

He still looks unconvinced, and Annie can feel her anger rising. "You listen to me, soldier. We need to get out of here. You hold onto Jai and keep your mouth shut. Do you understand?"

Even in the embarrassing pose he now finds himself in, Auggie can feel the determination and strength in her words, her touch. He nods and clenches his arms around Jai.

"About time," Jai says. "Mark, you go first, Annie next, then me and Auggie. Let's go."

Quickly, and with sure steps that belie his husky build, Mark climbs out the window and onto the ledge. Another round of gunfire outside the door hastens their movements, and Annie climbs out, placing her feet in the same spots she saw Mark use. The ledge ends a foot from the drainpipe, and with a deep breath, Annie reaches over to grab it. Braces a few feet apart hold the pipe to the wall, and she uses them as a ladder, quickly but assuredly stepping down.

Once she's down about half a story, she can hear Jai step out. She wants to look up, but can't. A niggle of fear runs through her as the "what ifs" run through her brain, but she pushes them away. She can see the ground coming closer, and once she's a few feet from the ground, she can feel Mark's hands at her waist. She lets him help her jump to the concrete below.

Only then does she allow herself to look up. Her respect and admiration for Jai Wilcox grows as she watches her fellow officer bring himself and Auggie to safety. Only half a story to go, and they'll be clear.

Then what she fears the most happens. She sees a dark-haired man in black lean out the window they just escaped from. As he looks down, their eyes meet, and Annie can see the evilness in his gaze. He raises his AK-47, aiming not for her, but for the two men that can't see him.

"No!" Annie yells as she pulls the Smith & Wesson out of her waistband, taking quick, but careful aim. She screams at Jai to watch out as her finger squeezes the trigger.

Half a second quicker, Annie's shot rings true, catching the man directly in the face, throwing his shot off the mark. He slumps half in, half out of the window.

"Jai, let's go!" Mark yells, moving up to the drain pipe to grab hold of the two men. A few seconds later, they're on the ground, and Auggie releases his grip. Jai bends over, breathing heavily from exertion.

"This way," Mark says, sprinting away and around the corner of the building.

They follow, Annie firmly gripping Auggie's hand. Down an alley to the end, she sees a black van waiting. Mark jumps into the driver's seat and Jai in the passenger, so Annie slides open the side door and pushes Auggie in. She jumps in herself and slides the door shut just as Mark floors the accelerator.

The back of the van is empty save boxes of equipment, so Annie slouches down on the floor, striving to catch her breath. Jai's voice echoes back to them, relaying their progress into HQ.

"Annie, did you get the bio-serum?" he shouts back to her.

"Yeah," Annie says, patting the small bulge of her inside pocket.

While he turns back and continues to talk to HQ, Annie looks over to Auggie. Reaching down in the dim light of the van's interior, she finds his hand and intertwines her fingers with his. She hears a metallic jingle, and lifting up her arm, she sees the handcuffs she'd attached on Auggie only a half hour ago.

Fishing the key out of her pocket, she releases him from the metal bracelet, letting it drop to the floor. Instinctively, she begins to rub at the reddened skin. "How'd you get free?" she whispers.

"Broke the pipe," Auggie says.

"But I thought Jai—"

"Came after," Auggie finishes for her. "He wanted to get me out then, but I refused."

"You should've gone with him," Annie says softly.

"And leave you to the same fate as that other woman?"

Annie shakes her head, not believing they're having the same argument again. "We're quite a pair, aren't we? I wonder why Joan hasn't fired us, as many protocol rules we break."

"Because you get the job done," Auggie says, "every time."

"We get the job done," Annie clarifies. "Couldn't do this without you."

"And without you, I'd still be behind that desk, pretending I don't want to be out in the field."

Annie giggles and nudges against his shoulder. "We're quite a team, huh? Like Lois Lane and Clark Kent."

Auggie shakes his head. "Nah. How about Bond and Moneypenny?"

"Moneypenny never left the office, so—"

"Umm, Peter Parker and Mary Jane?"

"Uh-uh. I don't have red hair."

Auggie sighs dramatically. "Okay, then, Daredevil and Elektra."

"That's so cheesy, I'm not even going to dignify it with a response."

"Okay, then, how about—"

Silencing him with a finger to his lips, she leans in close. "How about just Annie and Auggie?"

Moving her fingers away, Auggie reaches over and kisses her quick, catching the left side of her mouth with his.

As they move apart before their actions can be seen, Auggie leans in again to whisper in her ear, "I prefer Auggie and Annie, but we can talk about who gets top billing when we get home."

* * *

**THE END**

**A/N This story was written between Seasons 1 and 2. I hope you all enjoyed it if you hadn't read it yet. Go on over to Trish47's page and read her stuff, as well. She's an awesome writer.**

**Please review.**


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